


keep him posted

by katcchako



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Ice Skating, M/M, Post-it Notes, accidental breaking and entering, as was one miniature cactus, not in that order. nothing in these tags has an order., one cantaloupe was harmed in the making of this fic, ushijima and hinata are just awkward but maybe oikawa can help them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 07:30:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8615110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katcchako/pseuds/katcchako
Summary: Yamaguchi gave Shouyou that miniature cactus as a gift- not to be used as a projectile weapon. Sadly, Shouyou's next-door neighbor doesn't know how to knock (which is terrifying), and Shouyou goes for the first thing he can grab. The tenant downstairs hears the entire ordeal and thinks it's the funniest thing that has ever happened. Shouyou doesn't agree.//on a severe hiatus





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astroao3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astroao3/gifts), [kimmykinda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimmykinda/gifts).



> this is the stupidest thing i've ever created at 1am.

_“Shouyou! Tobio-kun sent me pictures you took of the new apartment last night. It’s so nice, I’m proud of you for budgeting and getting such a good place! My baby boy’s growing up so fast I… oh, I… I’m going to start crying again. Call me once you’re all moved in, okay? I love you, sweetie.”_

Shouyou’s listened to this voicemail from his mother a total of seven times. He’s about to make it eight when Kageyama snatches his phone out of his hands and holds it above both of their heads, brows pinched down in annoyance. Oh. Right. He’s supposed to be decorating. Right. Haha. Oops.

“Sorry,”

Kageyama rolls his eyes, tossing the other’s phone onto the couch beside him. “Don’t apologize to me, dumbass. This is your place, it’s your fault if it’s ugly when I leave.” He turns away and squats down to rummage through a box labeled _living room knick-knacks!!!_ “You still have this dumb picture…”

Almost laughing, Shouyou tries to pull a mad face out of thin air as he peers around the other to see, and can’t manage it, his lips wiggling into a giddy smile. “It’s not dumb! That picture of the five of us is really important to me!”

“Tsukishima’s dumb face makes it dumb.” Mutters Kageyama, placing the framed photo beside him. He goes back to the box, making disgruntled noises as if every little thing was the worst thing he’d ever seen in his life. “Anyway. Get up and move something, I’m not gonna be here all day.”

“I have the jitters,” is Shouyou’s excuse, pulling his legs up onto the couch, feet dangling off the cushion.

He can almost hear the eyebrow raise in Kageyama’s voice. “So listening to your mom get choked up a thousand times makes you feel better? Gross. What kind of sicko—”

A kick to the back has Kageyama teetering forward and Shouyou immediately regrets it when the other boy looks over his shoulder at him. Shouyou is quick to pull his leg back and crawl to the opposite end of the couch, reach out and snatch the broom leaning against the wall to use as a weapon. “You deserved it! Don’t look at me! I’ll fight!”

“I’m so scared of your broom.” Kageyama raises on his feet. “Put that down. I’m serious, I don’t know where to put this stuff.”

Shouyou huffs but does as he’s told, swinging his legs off of the side of the couch, socked feet stomping indignantly on the fake wood floors under his feet. Kageyama’s rolling his eyes and moving into the kitchen when Shouyou calls out to him, “Can we at least listen to music?”

“As long as it’s not Love Live,” the other answers, the clanking of silverware following.

Biting back the response of _Yachi made that mix for me, don’t be ungrateful just because you can’t appreciate it,_ Shouyou swaps out the broom in favor of his phone and searches through his music library. He selects one of his specially titles  _Kageyama Won’t Deck Me for This_ playlists, setting his volume on max and placing his phone speaker up on the arm of the couch. Afterward, he looked around at the living room. He had his couch, he had his bookshelves that would hold more knick-knacks than books, he had that weird navy rug with the tassels that Tsukishima claimed his brother had picked out. Along with that, there is the miniature cactus Yamaguchi had picked out as a housewarming gift already placed in the middle of the bookshelf with nothing else.

The floors had been swept a good hundred times after they’d left, leaving Kageyama in charge of helping Shouyou finish setting everything up. Large windows brought in what remained of the summer day from the far end of the room along with the closed doors of his untouched balcony. The curved, open frame archway leading to the kitchen needed to be repainted near the floor; the kitchen itself was small but that was to be expected. Shouyou knows he won’t be using it much, he’s not much of a chef, plus Yachi had said she doesn’t trust the stove…

There are two bedrooms in Shouyou’s apartment. One he’d probably turn into a workout room if he doesn’t find a roommate soon (and if his friends pool together and get him the treadmill he’s been hinting at for six and a half months for his birthday). The one furthest from the kitchen (and closest to the bathroom) was the one he’d claimed as his own. Yachi had been the one to lay out the futon while the guys moved up and down the stairs, breaking their legs to get the minimal amount of Shouyou’s things to the fourth floor to his apartment. Maybe he should put the cactus in his bedroom window instead.

All in all, a nice place. His friends like it, his mother likes it, he likes it. It’s a leisurely stroll to the grocery store, an hour and a half from his mother, and his friends all lived within walking various distance (except for Yachi, who lives out of town with her girlfriend).

He’s an adult. A full-fledged adult with a place of his own and—

“Hey!” –And a Kageyama, who is still in his kitchen (with knives!). Shouyou spins a 180, pointing finger guns at the man peeking out of his kitchen archway. “Dude, come _on,_ just. Put your pictures and dumb trophies and shit on the bookshelves. It’s not that hard.”

“Why are you so eager for me to put my stuff away?”

Kageyama groans. “Because you’re a dumb clumsy shit and if you leave boxes in the middle of your floor you’ll trip and break your neck and die.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, wow. If I have to tell you again, I’ll chuck that box off your balcony.” And then he’s disappeared behind the wall separating the living room from the kitchen. His shout is muffled by said wall. “Should I test this stove or do you want to take Yachi’s word for it?”

Shouyou puts the picture frame back into the box before lifting and moves over to the bookshelves to put the contents of the box away. “I’m taking Yachi’s word for it, I don’t want to blow up the whole building.”

“’K.”

Shouyou reminisces over the photo of himself and his four closest friends when he takes it out of the box again. It was an awkward “say cheese!” shot taken by Tsukishima’s brother when they’d all gone ice-skating for Yamaguchi’s birthday two years ago. Awkward, in the sense, that Yachi was the only one able to pose and not fall on her ass, and instead gave a peace sign while the four men in the picture with her were very clearly struggling to stay on their feet.

The memory makes him laugh, a small chuckle tutting out of him as he places the frame beside his cactus, smiling to himself as he starts placing the other things in the shelves. Once the box is empty he tosses it on the couch, wiggling himself over to the archway in an attempt to dance to the song playing from his phone. He peeks in, telling Kageyama he’s done with his knick-knacks, which is followed by the two crushing the empty cardboard boxes lying around his apartment.

Eventually Kageyama leaves, warning Shouyou not to forget to lock his apartment up before he goes to sleep, and Shouyou waves his hand, _pshaw, Kageyama, I’m gonna forget that_ , seeing the other out.

And then it’s just him.

Alone.

The music has long since been gone, Shouyou’s phone dying when he and Kageyama had crushed the boxes of Shouyou’s clothes. All of the destroyed cardboard lay in a pile beside his couch and against the wall. Maybe he’d make a fort out of it… no, no. _Shouyou, you’re an adult, act like one_.

(…Maybe he’d make a fort out of it.)

It’s late though. (So he wouldn’t make a fort out of it tonight. Shouyou hesitates before he turns the lights off, shoving his dead phone into the pocket of his sweats and snagging the mini-cactus from its spot on his bookshelf. Then when the lights are off, he scurries to his bedroom, promptly tripping over his shoes, stumbling, but catching himself before he falls onto his futon.

His room’s smaller when it’s dark, when he’s the only one there, but that’s okay. Shouyou places the cactus on his windowsill—he can almost hear Yamaguchi repeating how it needs to be kept in the sun—for the morning sun to wash over, then promptly falls back onto the futon. He’d need to buy a real bed eventually, probably, but for now the futon would have to do.

Eyelids fluttering shut, Shouyou’s last conscious thought is to make sure he gets the stove checked out just in case Yachi’s hunch is correct. And not to forget… not to forget… not to forget…

…He has to pee. It’s sometime later, he doesn’t know when because his phone is dead, the charger’s in the kitchen where Yachi had used it to plug in her own phone hours ago. Shouyou wobbles as he stands, using the wall beside his futon as leverage before stepping over it and onto the floor, eyes barely open and not focused enough for him to be standing.

The walk to the bathroom won’t be long, the door’s right outside his bedroom—

 _Creek. Errrrr—_ his front door opens.

Shouyou immediately backs into his bedroom, nearly tripping over his shoes again, eyes growing wide. Someone—someone’s in his apartment. Oh god. Oh god—someone is breaking in to his apartment. It’s his first day living there, damn it, how long has he been a target? _How did the breaker-and-enterer know—_

He moves back to his window and snatches the mini-cactus up by its pot. If he lived through this, Kageyama may never let him hear the end of it for forgetting to lock his fucking door. But he’s going to be fine, he just has to distract his assumed thief, run out of his apartment and beat on his neighbor’s door until someone opened up and let him call the police. Simple. Easy. Safe.

Grey socks slide stealthily along the laminate floors under him, Shouyou’s fingers curling around his bedroom door… and he throws it open when the living room light clicks on, unleashing a battle cry that startles his attacker and that’s his chance—he chucks the cactus at this much, much larger man, hitting him in the face, and Shouyou’s about to make a break for the front door when he realizes he can’t, because this broad man is blocking his door.

“DON’T KILL ME,” Shouyou shrieks, making fists. “THIS IS MY FIRST APARTMENT PLEASE DON’T KILL ME I—”

“My mistake…”

“—DON’T WANT TO DIE YET—”

“I apologize,” the man says, raising his hands. “I… honestly thought this was my apartment.”

Shouyou stares at the man. “…You… you’re not here to rob me and gut me like a fish?”

“What?” The man stares at him, slowly lowering his hands as Shouyou lowers his own fists. “No… I left my door unlocked to go assist a neighbor a moment ago… the hallway is dark… I’m tired… I thought this was my apartment.” He explains.

“Oh.”

The big man’s eyes fall to the floor, he crouches to pick up the cactus, and then looks back at Shouyou when he’s upright. “You threw a cactus at me?”

“It was the only thing I had!” Shouyou squeaks, feeling both defensive and ungodly awkward. “I… thought you were gonna try to fight me.”

They both stand there in heavy, unnerving silence, which gives Shouyou time to take in this man. He—he’s big. Wide. Like. Muscular. He’s got dark, short hair parted to the right and dark brows to match, eyes overcast with exhaustion, and Shouyou suddenly feels bad… even if it is this man’s fault for breaking and entering (accidentally).

“—Sorry,” they say at the same time, quick and cut off and resulting to more silence.

The man scratches the back of his head. “You’re the new tenant, then… I apologize,” he repeats, dropping his hand. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“S’okay… stuff happens.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“I… sorry. Goodnight—”

“I’m Shouyou!” because who doesn’t make friends at two, three, four, five o’clock in the morning? “Hinata, Shouyou. I, uh… hi. It’s… nice to meet you?” Is it? Is it really? _You hit him in the face with a baby desert plant for the love of god, Shouyou._

“…Ushijima.” Says the other after a pause. “Ushijima, Wakatoshi.”

“Nice to meet you!”

“…Okay.”

Shouyou’s trying to smile. “Sorry for throwing a cactus at you.”

“I… Yeah. It’s fine.” Ushijima looks around, glancing down at the cactus in his hand before taking a few awkward steps toward Shouyou and extending his arm to give it back to him. Shouyou takes it, retracting his hand quickly, and Ushijima bows his head. “Sorry. Goodnight.”

When he leaves, Shouyou’s trying to think of how much more awkward he could have made that. Then he remembers how badly he has to go to the bathroom and decides it could have and would have been worse if he’d pissed himself when he screamed what probably didn’t sound like a battle cry to Ushijima.

He’s done his business, gone to finally, _finally_ lock his door and move back to his bedroom, cactus in tow. It goes back in its place on his windowsill, small and round and prickly, giving off the weirdest shadow against his futon from the dull moonlight and lack of curtains.

As Shouyou is drifting back off, thankful that it wasn’t actually someone breaking into his house and seeking to kill him, he swears he hears the faintest of laughter below the floors.

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a very long, gay mistake that will continue to start at 1AM. it's nearly 6AM now. I hope you're happy.


End file.
